Yes, the magical element present in so much of Shakespeare's work is here, yes, there is a good dose of humor, and, yes, the writing itself is, well, Shakespearean. But Doctor Faustus' humor i While I tease my daughter incessantly about the true identity of Shakespeare, I have to admit that while a lot of evidence points towards Christopher Marlowe and Shakespeare being the same person, I can't, in all honesty, hold up the play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus as a Shakespeare-worthy text.
But Doctor Faustus' humor is less bawdy than that of Shakespeare's plays, by and large, and the melodrama is overwrought.
Also, Doctor Faustus is, by the end, downright pedantic, and while Shakespeare had no fear of moralizing, his sermons were quite a bit more restrained than the typical medieval or Renaissance "Everyman" dramas. Still, if one can recognize the religiously-condescending tone as a product of its age, there is a lot to like here.
I'm particularly enamored of Doctor Faustus' dark sense of humor that demeans, rather than destroys, his enemies. With the power granted him through the devil, Mephistopheles, one might expect Faustus to simply run rampant over the earth laying waste to all those who find themselves in his path.
Instead, Faustus shows a twisted humor by planting stag horns on those that have tried to kill him in order to shame them in front of their fellow man. He could have just snuffed them out of existence, with Mephistopheles' help, but loves to use magic to taunt his enemies rather than eliminate them.
And this may be why Faustus is simultaneously so darned likeable and abhorrent. He has access to infinite power, yet squanders it on such things as making the Pope and his cardinals play the fool. He's like a child with far more power than he knows what to do with. And, like an indecisive child who can hardly help his own bad behavior, he figures out, in the end, through the good grace of Helen of Troy, that he has gone too far for his regret to save him from the price he has agreed to pay for his fun.
Rather than feeling that Faustus gets his just desserts, I'm inclined to feel a bit of sympathy for the guy whose blasphemy and denial of God seemed more like a joke than a true refutation of divinity. Then again, I would likely have been burned at the stake for saying so back in Marlowe's, or is it Shakespeare's day?
Apr 10, T. Preston rated it it was amazing. Reread update: Once again I am impressed. This was perhaps even more interesting the second time around. The writing itself is still worth the price of admission.
Certain passages of dialogue are extremely well put together. Original Review: I discovered this play only recently. For whatever reason I figured I'd pick it up and give it a try. It was so short I blew through it in one sitting. I can say I enjoyed it quite a bit.
It was an interesting tale. Faustus sells his soul to Lucifer for power Reread update: Once again I am impressed. Faustus sells his soul to Lucifer for power, only living to regret it once his time is spent as characters like him usually do in these kinds of stories.
I'd say this is well worth a read. The writing is great and the characterization is crisp. It's no Shakespeare, in my humble opinion, but it's a quality play. Apr 22, Jovana Autumn rated it really liked it Shelves: classics-read , my-read-ebooks , poetry , reviews , , read-in-english , spooky-season.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. In the 16th century, there was quite a transition from the medieval to humanist time, instead of a religious figure an average human was the main interest, art was freer, one could write about a man and his emotional struggle between the otherworldly and worldly or say; about seeing a woman on the window Petrarch and other sonnet writers. One was free to explore the limits of knowledge, universities have been opened all around Europe where one was allowed to study Studia humanitatis grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, philosophy, Latin, and Greek and rise in society with his own hard work and knowledge.
Faust himself presents a man who has learned all there is to learn and his ambition for more knowledge is a force that drives him to his end. At one point, knowledge became a tool for gaining more power so Faustus wants not only the knowledge for himself but the power that comes along with it: Like Wagner who feels satisfaction by compelling Robin to do whatever he wants, so does Faust in doing his demonstrations of power like summoning Helen of Troy and Alexander the Great or pulling tricks on the pope.
Ah, the beauty of a bargain is that it is only beneficial towards one side of, in most cases. Marlowe has a few bargains in his tragedy, besides the main one, there is the one with a horse-courser and the one between Wagner and Robin, needless to say, they all end in one side severely benefiting and the other being deceived. This play has that economical element while mirroring the redemption Jesus Christ made for the sins of humans, Faust does the complete opposite with his deal with the devil, talk about a bad bargain.
I was begotten on a sunny bank, where I have lain ever since, and you have done me great injury to bring me from thence. Let me be carried thither again by Gluttony and Lechery. Tell me, where is the place that men call hell? Giving in to his temptation, listening to the Evil angel and the Devils, he seems to be always on the cusp of redemption but changes his mind at the last minute.
Faustus is gone. Regard his hellish fall, Whose fiendful fortune may exhort the wise Only to wonder at unlawful things, Whose deepness doth entice such forward wits To practise more than heavenly power permits. Take, for example, the devil himself, Lucifer, presented here as a ruler of hell. His sin was similar in nature to the sin of Faustus, he too wanted to have limitless power and knowledge, placing himself above all.
There was this verse that made me wonder, is hell predestined for a certain type of people quite a Calvinistic view and Calvinism was on the rise at the time : FAUSTUS: "Stay, Mephistopheles, and tell me, what good will my soul do thy lord?
Marlowe has created a memorable play about the dangers of unlimited knowledge and power, about how sin only leads to sin, and even if we do realize that what we are doing is harmful to us, we continue to do so because the mere thought of redemption is overshadowed by the appeal of continuing being omnipotent — it takes quite a strength of character to renounce our own power. Review to come.
And that leads you to another question: What is the purpose of existence? Then, you find yourself obligated to answer an overwhelming question: Do we understand God correctly? When we go back in time to Adam and Eve, we know that their first sin, which resulted in their banishment from Heaven, was the hunger for forbidden knowledge. Faustus committed that very same sin. He made a deal with Lucifer and ate voraciously from the tree of knowledge.
However, we should ask ourselves: What is forbidden knowledge? I believe that forbidden knowledge is that kind of knowledge that makes us feel superior to others. The knowledge that inspires us to treat people as if we were gods, and they are our slaves.
But here's the rub: in order to gain that power, Faustus has to give it all away—to Lucifer. Ultimately, the power Faustus dreamt of could never be his. The everlasting struggle between good and evil in Doctor Faustus clearly represents the fact of the human vulnerability. Unfortunately, this fierce battle between good and evil within all of us will never end, and this woeful fact is reflected in life itself.
Yet while religion follows him, step-by-step on his slow journey to eternal damnation, we cannot help but think that Faustus never gets how important religion really is in his life, or the role it will eventually play in the fate of his soul. When we study history, we understand how cruel and pitiless the church was. Christianity in the 17th century showed deep conflict. The Age of Enlightenment grew to challenge Christianity as a whole, generally elevated human reason above divine revelation.
This conflict is highly reflected in Doctor Faustus, and it took so many forms. I believe that religious institutions were highly responsible for this. I think that this particular kind of conflict is a recurring pattern that exists in all religions: a grandeur idea with loathsome and revolting interpretations.
We are vulnerable, weak, and pathetic human beings, we commit sins and we have a deep and hidden passion for the forbidden. In my opinion, we should not damn Faustus because of what he did. Nevertheless, we should read Faustus as if we were reading ourselves.
We were born, we live, and eventually we will die. Therefore, we should listen to Faustus and learn from him instead of cursing him. I believe that Faustus's fall has been caused by his choice to believe that he's damned. That causes him to refuse to repent, and refusing to repent is the one sin that's truly unforgiveable. Even though there are many reasons for every one of us, just like Faustus, to lose his faith and his confidence in God, but there is still a small and powerful light inside of every one of us mysteriously leading us to the right path.
Faustus did not lose that light, but his tragedy was that he was not courageous enough to support that small weak light in order to overcome the huge darkness inside of him. If you think about it, the thing that tempts someone to sin is different for every person. For Faustus it was knowledge, but for some people, it might be money, or a special social position, or even something as trivial as food craving!
Therefore, the lesson to be learned from Faustus's fall turns out to be bigger than just a warning against forbidden knowledge. I highly recommend this play View 1 comment. Doctor Faustus is a hilarious play set in the 16th century exploring the arrogance of Doctor Faustus, a man who believes he knows everything and can fool God and Lucifer. As can be imagined, that does not turn out well Great play, I have to read it for uni.
I really enjoyed it and would definitely read again. The play is a medium-paced story written in typical classical style. Considering it was penned sometime between , the content is fairly readable and the theme is surprisingly relevant more than years later.
The story is based on the German legend of Faust. He makes the most of these two dozen years, meeting heads of the church and the state, and travelling across the country showing off his prowess.
But when the sands of his gifted time come to an end, he cries and turns to God for forgiveness. And what do you think happens? The book is a classic portrayal of the vagaries of human nature and how people remember God only in times of trouble. It is pretty well-written and quite interesting, though a tad more religious than I had expected. I can see why Christopher Marlowe was considered a talented dramatist in London until his untimely death changed the focus over to Shakespeare.
I might have enjoyed it more had I actually read it or heard a better audio version. The Librivox recording was average.
View all 4 comments. Sep 29, Liam rated it really liked it. As dark and twisted as this was, it was actually really great!! The start was a little slow but when it gets going I really started to enjoy it. The story is very weird and messed up but it made it that bit more entertaining! Mar 11, Toria rated it liked it. I've recently read a play called Faust I think , which got the same premise. A man sells is soul to the devil. Just a few difference but I didn't enjoy this as much.
The story telling didn't work for me and I feelt rather disconnected and bored by it I've recently read a play called Faust I think , which got the same premise. The story telling didn't work for me and I feelt rather disconnected and bored by it There wasn't any good reason for the devils to be doing anything for Faustus, and this business of signing up souls?
What the hell is that? Assuming the soul is a real, discrete, item that can be separated from a body, why would you want one? And if serving the whims of humans gets you out of hell for a while, why wouldn't you devote yourself to your human with slavish devotion? Also what does Helen of Troy have to do with Alexander the Great?
Apparently I wasn't just bored, I was also unable to suspend disbelief for a nano second. Seriously, I was really looking for great stuff from Marlowe, particularly since so many conspiracy theorists seem to believe that Marlowe's death was faked or something, he was really Shakespeare, blah, blah, blah.
One good line in the whole thing. Othello is equally puzzling, but it wasn't so boring. At least Iago was some sort of genius of revenge. You could probably convince me though that Marlowe was primarily a spy, and that "writing plays" was just his cover story. Changing the subject from dull Elizabethans, some of you might have seen an earlier review in which I mentioned the mis-adventures of Calder Alexander Eno.
Well, last week all the cats went to the vet for shots, and they took a closer look at his injury. To my horror as a cat person, his tail was not getting better as I had thought it was getting worse.
They ended up having to remove the last three bones, in order to have enough skin to reseal him. Twenty-four hours after his surgery he was almost entirely recovered, forty-eight hours he was completely back to normal, thwapping humans with his new, shorter, and skinnier tail tip. I share this with you secure in the knowledge that I am not the only person who didn't know that the tip of a cat's tail was so vulnerable, and that losing skin there seemingly from Scarlett Eno's teeth, she's horrible to him even a tiny little bit maybe 5mmx5mm is potentially very bad.
Tail injuries will always warrant vet visits for us in the future. So good, it'll make your stomach jump out of your body!!! I'll review this gem very soon and link it here! The actual play is only 98 pages. Following this incident, he travels through the courts of Europe, with his fame spreading as he goes. Eventually, he is invited to the court of the German emperor, Charles V the enemy of the pope , who asks Faustus to allow him to see Alexander the Great, the famed fourth-century b.
Macedonian king and conqueror. Faustus conjures up an image of Alexander, and Charles is suitably impressed. Furious, the knight vows revenge. Faustus then goes on with his travels, playing a trick on a horse-courser along the way. Faustus sells him a horse that turns into a heap of straw when ridden into a river.
Eventually, Faustus is invited to the court of the Duke of Vanholt, where he performs various feats. Personifications of the seven deadly sins from Christian doctrine. Used to help Lucifer convince Faustus that Hell is actually kind of fun. He holds dominion over all devils. The head of the Catholic church. Resides in Rome in the Vatican. Faustus pranks him and ends up boxing his ears for crossing himself three times. Mephistophilis turns Rafe into a dog and Robin into an ape.
An angel who comes to Faustus throughout the play. Dr Faustus is a well-educated man who is not satisfied with his life and decides that he wants to practice with higher powers, like magic.
He is convinced with magic, he can accomplish great things, and that he needs nothing else in life. This was his hubris, and lead to his own demise. His desire to be an overreacher and his discontent with earthly knowledge is a presentation of the story of Adam and Eve.
Adam and Eve became curious about the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil because God told them to not eat from that tree. Meanwhile, the serpent, representing the devil, tempted them into eating from it. For Dr. Faustus, his curiosity outweighed his moral compass, and because of this curiosity of the dark arts, all three of these people were bound to an eternity in hell. Just like Dr. Faustus, Adam and Eve gained too much knowledge from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and through this eye opening experience, their knowledge lead them to become tainted.
Faustus is written during the English Renaissance, a time when people were testing human limits and challenging religious values. People did not just take religious teachings as gospel anymore, and felt the need to challenge beliefs with science and further evidence of certain phenomenon. However, not everyone was so keen on this new way of teaching. For some, the religious teachings was not something that should be analyzed.
One was supposed to take biblical teachings as gospel and not challenge them. Marlowe exposes the risks that people were taking in challenging their beliefs, as well as the profound effect that it had on the evolution of society as a whole.
In Scene I, there is the discussion that Dr. Doctor Faustus is an Elizabethan tragedy by Christopher Marlowe that was first performed in Read our full plot summary and analysis of Doctor Faustus , scene by scene break-downs, and more. See a complete list of the characters in Doctor Faustus and in-depth analyses of Faustus and Mephastophilis. Here's where you'll find analysis of the literary devices in Doctor Faustus , from the major themes to motifs, symbols, and more. Find the quotes you need to support your essay, or refresh your memory of the book by reading these key quotes.
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